The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-272036, which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to assembly of resin parts, more particularly, to a method for assembling resin parts into a product by serially detaching resin parts from a primary compact, which is an aggregate of the resin parts, one of which serves as a base part, and subsequently attaching the detached resin parts, which are other than the base part, to the base part.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of a conventional assembly structure having a plurality of resin parts, which are serially attached to a resin part serving as a base part, each of the resin parts is resin-molded by using a corresponding die. Further, the molded resin parts are stocked after taken out of the dies. At that time, the resin parts individually packed and undergo a part management operation. Thereafter, when the resin parts are transported to an automatic assembly system, each of the resin parts is supplied to a part feeder for supplying parts thereto. Then, a product is produced by serially attaching the parts, which is other than the base part, to the base part.
FIG. 8 illustrates such a conventional assembly structure disclosed in JP-A-9-219236.
A connector housing 100 and a retainer 200 are resin parts, each of which is resin-molded by using a corresponding die. Each of the molded connector housing 100 and the molded retainer 200 is then packed and transported to an automatic assembly system. In the automatic assembly system, each of the connector housing 100 and the retainer 200 is supplied to a corresponding part feeder. Then, the retainer 200 is attached to the connector housing 100 from an opening portion provided in the bottom surface portion thereof in such a manner as to be in a temporarily caught state. Subsequently, a terminal 300 is inserted into the connector housing 100 from a terminal insertion opening. Thereafter, the retainer 200 having been temporarily caught in the connector housing 100 is fully caught therein, so that the terminal 300 is locked in the connector housing 100 in such a way as to be prevented from slipping off therefrom.
However, in the aforementioned conventional assembly structure having the resin parts, such resin parts are formed by using different dies, respectively. Thus, this conventional assembly structure cannot prevent the manufacturing cost of the connector from steeply rising with an increase in the number of dies to be used. Moreover, every time when the molded resin parts are transported or assembled, the part management operation should be performed on each of the resin parts. This increases the number of man-hours needed for performing the part management operations. Furthermore, although an assembling operation using an automatic assembly machine is performed in the automatic assembly system by utilizing part feeders so as to enhance working efficiency, an increase in the number of resin parts results in an increase in the number of part feeders. Consequently, the size and complexity of the automatic assembly machine are inevitably increased.
The invention is accomplished in view of the aforementioned circumstances. Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a method for assembling a plurality of resin parts, which integrally forms the plurality of resin parts thereby to reduce the number of man-hours needed for performing the part management operations, and which performs the layout of the integrally-molded resin parts of a primary compact in such a manner as to be effective in efficiently assembling the resin parts into a product in a subsequent assembling process.
To achieve the foregoing object, according to the invention, there is provided a method (hereunder referred to as a first assembling method) for assembling resin parts, which comprises the steps of transporting a primary compact, which is constituted by a plurality of resin parts integrally formed so that attaching directions of the plurality of resin parts are the same one, to an assembly system, and of detaching the plurality of resin parts, one of which serves as a base part, from the primary compact according to an assembling procedure and thereafter attaching the resin parts, which is other than the base part, to the base part.
Thus, the resin parts are integrally formed so that the attaching directions of the plurality of resin parts are the same with one another. Consequently, the resin parts other than the base part are serially moved to the base part by being maintained in a state in which the resin parts are detached from the primary compact. Moreover, the resin parts other than the base part are easily attached to the base part.
Further, according to another aspect of the present invention (hereunder referred to as a second assembling method), the primary compact may include different kinds of resin parts.
According to the second assembling method of the invention, the primary compact is constituted in this manner, so that the resin parts other than the base part are serially attached to the base part according to the assembling procedure by detaching each of the resin parts from the primary compact when needed in the assembling process. This eliminates the necessity for the part feeders that are needed in the conventional assembling method. Consequently, the configuration of the assembly system is simplified. Moreover, the part management operation to be performed on the resin parts is facilitated.
Moreover, according to another aspect of the present invention (hereunder referred to as a third assembling method), the plurality of resin parts of the primary compact are of the same kind of resin. That is, the assembling method may be adapted so that primary compacts, each of which consists of a plurality of parts of the same kind, are formed in such a manner as to correspond to different kinds of parts, respectively, that subsequently, such a plurality of kinds of primary compacts are transported to the automatic assembly system, and that when assembling the resin parts into a product, the resin parts are serially detached from the corresponding primary compacts, respectively, and then assembled into the product.
According to the third assembling method of the invention, the primary compact is constituted in the above manner, the resin parts are collectively and intensively managed. Consequently, the part management operation to be performed on the resin parts is facilitated. Moreover, the transportation of the resin parts to the assembly system, in which the subsequent assembly process is performed, is facilitated.